Old and New trees in Minecraft

Just saying. It could be interesting to find a variety of trees. Maybe use two different sprouts for different trees (small ones grow quick, big ones grow slow). Maybe small trees are young trees and the big ones are old (deeper in the forest, bigger the trees get). Good idea?

Sounds like a good idea to me. It would also be nice if it also got a thicker base as well for the larger trees, and it may be difficult to program how deep a tree is in the forest, but nevertheless a good idea

I've always thought that trees should start growing and become old trees, and after more time has passed, become new trees.

The system for this struck me as somewhat clunky, though... perhaps it's time to flesh out my tree ideas more. I think previously I talked about the concept of a Branch block, which would act pretty much like torches, in that they can be pointing straight up, or to one of the cardinal directions. A sprout would grow into a vertical branch, a branch would grow into a log with a branch on top, a log would grow branches on the side, and branches would always grow leaves around them. In this way, using New trees as a 'goal' perhaps. they DO look nice, it would be good if trees could gradually grow to become New trees.

Also, I think if two different sized sprouts were the case, the larger ones shouldn't stack.
As for branch blocks, I believe Notch has plans for them, and, yes, tree spreading would be nice, but what would be the cutoff? Granted, an unattended area would be overgrown eventually IRL, so maybe there shouldn't be one?

It can also be the environment conditions, so that trees won't tree punch through your buildings or your cave when you try to make an underground/inside tree farm. Little trees near walls and inside structures, big trees out in the open.

Also, I think if two different sized sprouts were the case, the larger ones shouldn't stack.
As for branch blocks, I believe Notch has plans for them, and, yes, tree spreading would be nice, but what would be the cutoff? Granted, an unattended area would be overgrown eventually IRL, so maybe there shouldn't be one?

Coming across the occasional giant, nearly physics-defying tree would be kindof amazing. I think in reality the only limit for trees is that eventually water cannot physically be sucked up any longer.
and I suppose if trees were to grow it'd make the most sense to have them be light-sensitive.

Coming across the occasional giant, nearly physics-defying tree would be kindof amazing. I think in reality the only limit for trees is that eventually water cannot physically be sucked up any longer.
and I suppose if trees were to grow it'd make the most sense to have them be light-sensitive.

What about Sequoias? Those are freakin' huge, any bigger than that would bug me though.

Coming across the occasional giant, nearly physics-defying tree would be kindof amazing. I think in reality the only limit for trees is that eventually water cannot physically be sucked up any longer.
and I suppose if trees were to grow it'd make the most sense to have them be light-sensitive.

What about Sequoias? Those are freakin' huge, any bigger than that would bug me though.

While I was typing that, I was thinking "Like 100 blocks high or something". So I looked up sequoias. "reaching up to 115.5 m" So yeah! Like sequoias!

Notch says that currently, he depends on knowing how tall a chunk is, but that he thinks it would be interesting enough to try to work around it to get infinite depth. I can only assume that infinite depth would work both ways; at the very least it should allow him to raise the ceiling.

As for constant chunk updates, that is easily avoided. Each tree would have a time value stored. If the chunk is not loaded/being updated, then it doesn't need to do anything. When a chunk is present, it can grow as you would expect. When it loads an old chunk, it can read the time value, and apply the appropriate growth. It would be slower than it is now(assuming the same level of optimization), but probably not by much, and would be a vast improvemnt over updating the entire world.

As for constant chunk updates, that is easily avoided. Each tree would have a time value stored. If the chunk is not loaded/being updated, then it doesn't need to do anything. When a chunk is present, it can grow as you would expect. When it loads an old chunk, it can read the time value, and apply the appropriate growth. It would be slower than it is now(assuming the same level of optimization), but probably not by much, and would be a vast improvemnt over updating the entire world.

Ah, so it would only do the chunk updates when a player is near the tree. That makes sense.